The Wizard of Oz - the Power You Always Have

Dorothy had the power to go home from the moment she arrived in Oz. She just didn't know it. If you haven't read it, consider this a gentle spoiler warning.

It's the story of a girl named Dorothy and her dog Toto, swept up by a tornado and dropped into the strange land of Oz. Her one wish is simple — to find her way back home to Kansas. She's told that the great Wizard of Oz, who rules the Emerald City, might be able to help her.

So the journey begins.

Along the way she meets three companions — a Scarecrow who believes he has no brain, a Tin Woodman who believes he has no heart, and a Cowardly Lion who believes he has no courage. Each of them travels to the Emerald City with a wish. The Scarecrow wants a brain. The Tin Woodman wants a heart. The Lion wants courage.

The Wizard grants their wishes. But here is what struck me — he gives them everything they already have. The Scarecrow had been solving problems throughout the entire journey. The Tin Woodman had wept with compassion at every turn. The Lion had faced genuine danger again and again despite his fear. They simply didn't know what they already possessed.

As for the Wizard himself — the great and powerful Oz, builder of the Emerald City — he turns out to be an ordinary man from Omaha who arrived by accident in a hot air balloon. The legend was constructed around him. The power was never really his.

Dorothy's answer, it turns out, was with her from the very beginning. The silver shoes she had been wearing since she first arrived in Oz had the power to take her home all along. She just didn't know it.

This is what stayed with me.

You already have what you need. But knowing that is not enough. Without the journey — without the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Lion, the dangers faced and the fears walked through — the shoes are just shoes. The capability means nothing without the experience that reveals it.

If Dorothy had known from the start what her shoes could do, she would have gone straight home to Kansas. She would never have found her companions. Never faced the Wicked Witch. Never discovered what she was actually capable of.

The journey is not the obstacle between you and what you want. The journey is the point.

This is not only about what you wish to acquire — a brain, a heart, courage, a way home. It is about what the body learns by moving through real terrain. What the heart discovers by feeling genuine fear and choosing to move anyway.

As Oz said — "The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid"

You already have the shoes. Take the journey my dear!